quade 4 #1 September 19, 2003 Well, nothing moving on the wires yet, but there's a big hole in space where signals from Telstar 4 used to be. Blacked out about 30 minutes ago and hasn't popped back up. It appears to have died an unnatural death of some sort. ABC/Disney had 7 C band and 20 Ku band transponders on it, but fortunately most of that is backed up on other satellites as well. Ought to be an interesting day at ABCNewsOne the satellite hub for news feeds around the country.quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lawrocket 3 #2 September 19, 2003 So, quade, to those of us who are techno-illiterate, what exactly does this mean? Does this mean our mobile phones aren't gonna work? Or, god forbid, our cable tv is out?? My wife is hotter than your wife. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
quade 4 #3 September 19, 2003 What this really means is that ABC news coverage of events away from the studio is gonna suck today. Isabel for instance might not be covered quite so well and the stumps of Clark et al might also be given a studio read rather than live by satellite coverage. Guys in satellite news rooms across the country are scrambling like mad right about now trying to re-route signals to other satellites. Yeah, so big deal -- right? Also, there's at least one porno cable channel down, so, fewer kitten will be killed today. quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
quade 4 #5 September 19, 2003 I don't think digital satellite feeds have quite caught on yet. I have no doubt that it will, but for general distribution to stations we're still using good ol' composite video via Vyvx fiber, C or Ku 99.9% of the time.quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
newshooter12 0 #6 September 19, 2003 Fiber has made it's way into my life, but from the calls from our affiliates to feed/shoot liveshots.... etc... they're amazed we don't have digital capability yet. At least 2 of the 4 stations one market east of here have digital sat trucks now. Thanks to fiber our master control is hubbed out of Indy starting last week. can you say downsizing. parkervision too but they've both been causing their own problems around the stations. Glad I'm off this week! Matt Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kallend 2,150 #7 September 19, 2003 Hmmm I remember when Telstar I was launched. Watched the very first live transatlantic TV broadcast.... The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
quade 4 #8 September 19, 2003 Brief historical on the first Telstar satellite.quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TheAnvil 0 #9 September 19, 2003 Very strange. Did you get this from the Ground Station? Do they have any verification the S/C has gone into safe mode? I think TELSTAR has NiH2 batteries and solar arrays for a power system. NiH2 has a decent amount of flight heritage. Momentum wheel ADCS no doubt. Chances are the solar cells were regular Si and not dual or multijuntion GaAs, so their failure is not likely. Probably some sort of C&DH processor problem. Interesting to see what the final verdict is.Vinny the Anvil Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL JACKASS POWER!!!!!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
quade 4 #10 September 19, 2003 This isn't the first communication satellite to go belly-up or just disappear. I'm trying to fire the old grey cells and come up with the name, but about 1998 and about 4 hours before a HUGE press event I was running the satellite we had booked simply vanished -- GONE without a trace. We had, as I recall, 6 transponders booked. That satellite also carried a huge amount of pager traffic and as I recall it took PageNet off-line. Anyway, there are a number of reasons why satellites can die an unnatural death and it'll be interesting to see what they have to say about this one if they can figure it out.quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
quade 4 #11 September 19, 2003 HERE we go. Reports are starting to trickle in. Quote Loral shuts down satellite due to short circuit Fri September 19, 2003 02:39 PM ET NEW YORK, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Bankrupt satellite operator and maker Loral Space & Communications Ltd. LRLSQ.OB said on Friday one of its North American satellites shut down after a power short circuit. The company, which has already agreed to sell the Telstar 4 satellite to Intelsat, said it is working with manufacturer Lockheed Martin Corp. LMT.N to determine the cause of the problem and to restore service if possible. Loral said it was able to make capacity available to most customers using the Telstar 4. Many of these customers had their service restored at the time of the statement, the company said. Hmmm . . . yeah, they shut it down -- riiight. Right after the short circuit did. quade - The World's Most Boring Skydiver Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TheAnvil 0 #12 September 19, 2003 This is true. I'm just hypothesizing.Vinny the Anvil Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL JACKASS POWER!!!!!! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
